“Oh... I don't know...” she said a bit hesitantly, twirling the pretzel around between her fingers. “He never seemed keen on it and forcing seemed rude.” It was the most unconvincing answer to a question she had ever given. Ninkasi knew it. Because she didn't lie. She didn't generally even give minor fibs. It wasn't worth the headache. This truth... which she considered and had come to her while she had been sitting curled up on a lap in an afghan, was a bit alarming. She didn't like it. So she shoved a pretzel in her mouth to try to distract from the truth and the fact that she knew she wasn't telling everything.
Staring forward, across a few empty tables to a little mini riser stage that was set up where karaoke would be done later. As she chewed... slowly to buy time, her eyes would shift over to Kratos' aunt, then back over to parts of her bar, then back and forth a few times.
“No, that's bullshit and I know it,” she said after swallowing. Ninkasi washed it down with a drink of beer. “But it was a rabbit hole I didn't really want to go down because it makes me a horrible person in some respects and I don't want to think about that either.” She swallowed again, this time nothing but trying to rid herself of a growing uncomfortable feeling in her throat.
“What kind of person takes whatever she wants and gives whatever she wants to whomever she wants... but has one thing,” she sighed and looked over to Philotes reluctantly, “she realized she doesn't want to share?” She shook her head, faced her glass and leaned back against the booth. “A really, really, selfish one, Lottie, that's who.”